Where Coyote Goes. by Michael Dwayne Smith

Listening to Willie Dixon work

Back Door Man, Kentucky

straight bourbon, and I can hear

the table being racked again—

what is it about

another man’s woman

in a smoky room,

dash of neon

painting a bar mirror.

All my pocket money’s going to be

swallowed by this wailing juke

and my credit card sees

nothing

but open highway.

The thing about now, this moment,

is it’s always perfect

in this little desert town

at 10:45

of a 90 degree August evening,

a bad moon out in the best way.

Possibility ranges these hills,

howls like an old lover, and where

coyote goes, I’ve got to follow.

Michael Dwayne Smith lives near a Mojave Desert ghost town with his family and rescued animals. His most recent book isRoadside Epiphanies (Cholla Needles Press, 2017). Nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, his work haunts many literary houses--including The Cortland Review, New World Writing, Star 82 Review, Blue Fifth Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Word Riot, Rat's Ass Review, Gravel, San Pedro River Review--and has been widely anthologized. When not writing or teaching, he edits Mojave River Press & Review.